In both domestic and commercial applications, it has become common to provide a trash compactor wherein a vertically movable ram functions to compact the trash. In such devices, an access door is often provided. For safety, it is desirable to lock the access door during downward movement of the ram in order to prevent the hand of a user from being trapped beneath the ram.
Among the objects of the invention are to provide a trash compactor having an automatically mechanically actuated lock which is actuated upon downward movement of the ram to lock the access door and upon upward movement of the ram to unlock the access door; wherein such a locking construction is achieved in a simple and inexpensive manner; wherein the locking function is positive and certain.